Fifth Meeting Of The Broadband Fixed Wireless Access Consultative Group Held At Wyndham House On 2 May 2000

Those present: Dave Toman Chairman RA
                           Nichola Watts Secretary RA
                           List of all those present at Annex A (9 Officials and 45 members)

Apologies were received from David Palmer (Oftel), Ian Sutton, Steve Simpson (Giganet UK), Christopher Holmes (DTI/CII), Adrienne Smith (The Newspaper Society), Dr Ahmad Atefi (ITC), Graham McDonald (Nortel Networks), David Crawford (Crown Castle), John Wood (P-Comm), Andy Monk (OPAL Telecom), Scott Marin (Spectra Point), Clive Twinn (Lucent Technologies), Simon Downs (Energis), and Mike Snalam (ITV).

1. Mr Toman asked for auction design issues to be taken under Item4 of the agenda. The Agenda was agreed.

2. The minutes were agreed without amendment.

International Experience

3. KPMG informed members that they had updated their slides on the "International Experience" indicating the number of countries that had held or were to hold an auction. These slides were available on the BFWA website.

4. IV Discussions on the Agency’s licensing proposals for the 28GHz band – BFWACG(00)194.Mr Toman reported that a Press Notice had been released on the Agency’s licensing proposals for the 28GHz band. The Agency had also issued a consultation paper (that was available on the BFWA website) on which they were inviting members’ comments on the licensing proposals by 19 May. Mr Sonke said that the Agency hoped to finalise the licensing proposals for the band in June. Action: Members

5. A BFWACG member said that there was a danger that operators would be forced to change their technologies several times throughout the duration of the licence. Mr Toman hoped that different technologies would be able to share, adding that this would be covered in the information memorandum.

6. The Agency plans to hold a simultaneous, multiple round auction based on a design used by the FCC which is used in America and Canada. It is proposed that there will be 45 licences on offer by dividing the UK into 15 regions, 3 licences available in each region. Bidders can bid for one licence in each region if they wish with each bid being placed simultaneously. Current Price Bidders will not be eligible to bid in the next round. Secure phone lines will be set up between the Agency and bidders enabling the Agency to run the auction as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible. The aim is to have up to 10 rounds a day as opposed to 3G who had only 3-4 rounds per day, and possibly a 7-day week for bidding. He said that at the end of the auction a provisional licence would be issued. A pre-condition is that anyone holding a licence must be a legal entity, no technical qualifications are necessary. He added that the level of deposit was yet to be decided as were the reserve prices. The number of waivers and whether there should be recess days are still to be discussed. A paper setting out the Agency’s proposals on auction design would be circulated to members soon for members’ views. Action: Agency

7. Some members expressed concern about having to declare to the Agency the number of regions they were intending to bid. Mr Sonke said that bidders needed to let the Agency know the number of regions but did not need to identify the licences that they were interested in within those regions otherwise the auction would be prolonged. Prof. Binmore explained that the activity rule would mean that companies would need to be active for a percentage (not yet defined) of their registered licences to remain in the auction. The activity rule would eventually rise to 100% enabling the auction to come to an end.

8. Mr Toman stated that Whitehall were discussing the possibility of reserving a licence for a new entrant, and the definition of a new entrant, which must be in clear and transparent terms.

V Options for the design of regions
9. KPMG gave a presentation on different options for Regions. Option 1, was the 9 Government regions and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, (12 in total) which did not consider radio purposes. Option 2 was made up of 12 English regions and Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, 15 in total and was the most preferable option. Option 3 was 16 regions, 19 regions including Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. KPMG explained that they had taken into account boundaries, and ensuring the regions were equal in size. A BFWACG member asked why KPMG had only considered the revenue for each region when the capital investment would be far greater in rural areas then London. Mr Babington said that they had to use some proxy, and that the purpose of each region was to be commercially viable. He added that London could not be split as there would be too many co-ordination problems.

10. In response to a BFWACG members question, Mr Toman said that the "Use It Or Lose It" criteria had yet to be defined, but he expected the money invested in the auction would provide some incentive for companies to roll out quickly. A BFWACG member enquired what would happen if no-one bid for a particular region. Mr Toman replied that Agency would have to consider whether the licences could be offered again.

11. A BFWACG member asked for a statement for the Agency on the position of 2GHz, 3GHz, 5GHz and 10GHz bands. Mr Mason said that he would provide an update on the position at the next meeting. Action: Mr Mason

12. A BFWACG member asked why the licences had to be equal in size, i.e 3 x 112MHz, when some companies would prefer smaller channels, such as 28MHz or 56MHz. Mr Titchmarsh asked why the possible additional 56MHz could not be used for smaller companies rather than wasted as a guard band. A BFWACG member said that it was important for members to know the position on 40GHz before the auction starts. Mr Toman stated that KPMG would do this. Action: Mr Toman said that he would like views on equal sized licences and the duration of licences by the end of May.

13. Dr Sprague from KPMG gave a presentation on the 40GHz Market. (Slides would be available on the web.) She said that the current plan was still to licence 40GHz by the end of the year but this will depend on the results of KPMG market research.  A BFWACG member asked why 28GHz was not aimed at residential as well as SME. A BFWACG member asked how committed the Agency was to an auction at 40GHz. Members said that they would prefer if the regions for 40GHz would be identical to 28GHz.

14. Mr Nixon reported that the technical group had considered co-ordination issues, both adjacent area co-channel PFD co-ordination limits and same area adjacent channel guard band requirements. The use of the potential "extra" 56MHz paired channel in the 28GHz band and CEPT SE19 28GHz and 40GHz band related issues were discussed. Also, a working document looking at the requirements for a co-ordination software tool was presented for comment. It was noted that the technical feasibility of using Point to Point in-band links for BFWA infrastructure was an ongoing action.

15. The members discussed paper BFWACG(00)22 on inter-operator guard bands in the 28GHz band. The technical group noted that the proposals for three equal paired 112MHz licences implied inclusion of inter-operator guard band requirements within the 2 x 112MHz assignments. The group considered the pros and cons of this approach and generally concluded that this policy was sound, subject to further work to ensure that the obligation on operators to co-operate is clear and accountable. The technical group recognised that in order for operators to co-operate and co-ordinate an "exchange" of a minimum set of their system parameters was required – the group will develop these during the coming meetings. Members also discussed paper BFWACG(00)21 regarding the use of the potential "extra" 56MHz paired channel in the 28GHz band. The 56MHz channel is subject to the public consultation and approval of the ERC decision relating to geographical band segmentation in the band – this is expected to complete in September 2000. Out of the 4 options presented for the use of the 56MHz paired channel, the majority of the technical group favoured Option 1 – use the channel to insert "hard" 28MHz guard bands between the 112MHz licences to reduce the co-ordination burden and provide a minimum level of protection. Some members raised concerns that they believed better use could be made of this potential extra channel and they were invited to submit their views. Mr Nixon remarked that any potential use of the extra 56MHz channel, should it become available, would be set out in the Information Memorandum. Action: Members to submit their views in writing

The date of the next meeting is 9 June 2000 at 151 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1.
(Map of location below)

151 Buckingham Palace Road
London
SW1

Annex A

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